With the reconstruction of the White Street parking lot nearing completion, the Red Bank council moved last week to keep newly created walkways clear for pedestrians.
The council introduced a parking ordinance amendment that requires vehicles to be parked “head-on” into spaces, rather than backed in.
A satellite view of the pond at the Red Bank Primary School, courtesy of Google Maps. Below, Andrew Winning, 10, demonstrates a human sun clock on the school grounds. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Kathie Panepinto was leading a tour of the Red Bank Primary School property and lamenting the heavy growth that hides an adjoining pond Monday when groundhog that had been sunning itself in the grass scooted across her path and into the brush.
“Oh, look at that,” she said said excitedly, noting that up-close sightings of deer and other wildlife are common at the school, which sits on landfill in a former wetlands abutting the Swimming River.
It was the kind of moment that for decades has inspired talk of the school’s potential as natural sciences learning center. And it underscored the value of ongoing efforts by Panepinto and other volunteers in their most ambitious effort to date: creating a permanent physical link between the school and the inaccessible pond.
Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore traces the path of the planned walkway, which continues off the proposed new bridge (in yellow) and up a series of ramps along the the west side of the rail line to Shrewsbury Avenue. Below, an elevation rendering of the bridge. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Monmouth County officials say they have solved the daunting sidewalk-to-nowhere conundrum they faced in designing a new bridge to connect Red Bank and Middletown at West Front Street.
The fix? Create a walk-and-bike path that will bypass the narrow rail trestle on the Red Bank side, Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore said Wednesday.
In what was billed as a preview of a fuller public presentation to come in the spring, Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore told Red Bank’s mayor and council that the revised plan for the new Hubbards Bridge also calls for a construction timetable that will detour traffic around the span for just three or four months of the projected 18-to-24-month buildout.
And when it’s all done, the borough will end up with a new parcel of green space overlooking the upper Navesink River, he said.